Tim Cook On The New iPad’s First Weekend Sales “We Had A Record Weekend”

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Today on Apple’s dividend and share repurchase program conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook touched briefly on the new iPad’s opening weekend sales. Exact sales numbers were not given at the time but Cook did state “[Apple] had a record weekend.” That brief statement likely means that the new iPad outsold the iPad 2. Last year Apple was mum on exact details for the iPad 2 but some analysts pegged its opening weekend sales numbers north of 1,000,000 units sold.

The big news of the day is that Apple just announced a dividend and $10 billion share repurchasing program. Cook and others on today’s call detailed that the intent is to provide income to long-time Apple stockholders while at the same time attracting new investors. The Apple bigwigs also constantly pointed out that the new programs will not disrupt Apple’s key goal to constantly innovate (and break sales records).

Apple will likely never come out and detail the exact sales numbers for the new iPad’s opening weekend. It will instead note numbers at longer milestones. Retailers might release their own sales numbers, though. For instance eBay released an infograph charting the first two weeks of the iPad 2’s worldwide sales.

As with most Apple products, analysts and the press are questioning the slight upgrades of the latest iPad. It’s just a faster data connection and better screen, they say. I said it, too. But if the new iPad outsold the iPad 2, it’s clearly a hit in the mind of the average consumer. They’re the only ones that matter anyway.